Answer: No

"Wait, what!? How can you say that!? I don't want to be running and looking for the other team and BOOM I see an ad for fanta and get all distracted then that other guy kills me!"

The answer is simple: ignore it, you don't need to "turn it off" or anything, just ignore it. "How can I ignore it? It's so BOOM in your face, and right there?" Same way you ignore all the other things you hate so much about counter-strike, I don't think I know a single person who plays Counter-Strike that doesn't hate something about it.

I like many others am actually annoyed with Valve's decision to include advertising in their games, but i also see it quite well as the lesser of two evils. "What the hell does that mean?"

Okay, let me put this in perspective, the development of games and upkeep of bandwidth and content servers for Steam costs Valve probably a couple million dollars each year, for the first couple of years after HL2 was released, this was really well covered, HL2 and it's other retail packages covering probably more than 100% of the cost, however, the majority of retail sales on Valve software has dwindled since then. The sales on their product are probably not enough to cover the upkeep of the Steam content servers, and the constant payment of employees who work there to improve existing games, systems (Steam), and develop new games. Valve needs an alternate form of revenue, and this is one that the community will not cry out against as much as the 1 other alternative.

"What's this alternative?"
Well, what do you think it is? What is the one thing that keeps MMORPG developers improving, updating, and developing those MMORPGs? A pay to play system, that's right, a monthly or annual fee. How would you like to pay to play games on Steam? Because I sure as hell wouldn't. So ads are the lesser of 2 evils, and overall, are the better option. Valve needs that inflow of money to support the development of their games, and the upkeep of their servers and without that we might as well have nothing.

Written by: Flying Mongoose